As I've already written below- Price Fixing is illegal:
Anytime an agreement among competitors to raise, fix or otherwise maintain the price at which their goods or services are sold....is illegal, it don't matter if business or contractor or the industry that you work in , as such actions lead to lack of competition. Now you can have a conversation during happy hour and talk about how lousy your rates are, but you have to have transparency and open communication when talking industry wide pricing...you gotta keep the curtain/door open. Now what I don't understand is when such companies as Dycom/Mastec..just to name a few, buy up most of the smaller profitable contractors in one trade, then when you sub from them,,,,they hand you the prices that your going to get paid to work for them. They should have an open bid process where "you" submit what your willing to work for. My belief is that the cable MSO operator should require their prime contractors to utilize their ""OWN""" crews, this would open the door for EVERY ONE in this trade to bid and offer a "Actual" competitive rate. This Industry Has To Change how they pay for getting the job done....Just Keep Safe: Microman
